Operation 'Feel Better'
by wingedflower
Summary: Lance is sick and Shiro is a good friend.


**A/N:** this was written as a birthday present for the lovely maychorian (Laura of Maychoria here on FFnet), whose Voltron fics I absolutely adore.

-X-

"Lance, buddy, can I come in?" Shiro called through the closed door to Lance's room. "I brought you some of Hunk's soup."

A low moan was heard from the other side of the door, followed by a series of wet coughs.

Shiro flinched and pushed the door open, only to find the Blue Paladin curled on the edge of his bed, wrapped in several blankets so tightly that only his flushed face peeked out. Crumpled tissues were scattered all around the room, as well as on the bed.

Shiro couldn't hold back a chuckle. "You look like one of those burritos Hunk made for dinner the other day."

Lance made a face. "Don't make fun of me," he croaked. "I'm dying."

Shiro sighed. "You're not dying, Lance. It's just a cold. A bad one, but you'll pull through it, eventually."

Lance squinted in response, unconvinced. "You said you've got soup?"

Shiro came to sit on the bed next to Lance and handed him the bowl and the spoon he was holding. "Eat it while it's still warm."

Lance wriggled his hands out of the blankets and took the bowl, balancing it carefully on his knees. He raised the spoon to his mouth and swallowed thickly. "Oh Hunk, you beautiful, sweet genius," he sighed. "Although I probably would have enjoyed it more if it didn't feel like sandpaper in my throat."

"Your throat still hurts?" Shiro asked.

"My throat. My nose. My head. Everything just hurts. Even my _hair_ hurts," Lance whined.

Shiro was about to say that it was probably physically impossible, but decided to let it go. Lance was always overdramatic whenever he was feeling under the weather, and the others have understood long ago that the best thing to do was to just let him rumble and blow off steam. Besides, this time Shiro couldn't really blame Lance for feeling extra miserable.

It was supposed to be a standard cleansing mission. They had found a planet with a branched system of ice caves, which appeared to be an abandoned base of the Galra. The caves were not inhabited, but a quick scan discovered that they were crawling with Galran mines, which could have caused a serious damage falling into the wrong hands - or accidently activated by an innocent traveler. Thus, they decided to enter the caves and dispose of each and every Galran object they put their hands on.

Despite their decision not to split up, Lance somehow managed to get separated from the rest of the team after taking a wrong turn without noticing, confident that his teammates have simply followed through. By the time they noticed his absence he was already gone, and they weren't able to reach him on the comms either. To make things even harder, some of the passageways were blocked by Galran mines or bombs which had to be defused before they could safely pass them - a fact that made the search for their lost friend way longer than necessary.

It was only an hour later that they finally found him. Apparently he fell into a hole which was wide enough for a human to spread his legs but also way deeper and colder than the rest of the tunnels. He wasn't injured apart from some bruises, but he was still in a pretty bad shape - on the verge of hypothermia combined with a panic attack. Hunk gave him a piggyback ride all the way back to the surface and to the castle, where they stripped Lance off his armor, wrapped him in at least three blankets and sent him straight to bed - only for him to come down with one hell of a cold on the morning after.

There wasn't too much any of them could do about it, honestly. The cryopods were meant for injuries, not illness, and a cold wasn't exactly a life-threatening disease. The best thing was to let Lance sweat it off while making sure he had a constant supply of medications, cold compresses for his fever and Hunk's ever-comforting space chicken soup.

Still, Shiro felt sorry for the kid. Being sick was never fun, especially after being stuck alone in a dark, cold hole for an entire hour. He truly hoped that Lance wasn't too traumatized by this experience. It was hard to know on the first couple of days after the incident, when Lance's fever had been so high that he was barely coherent. At least now it seemed to come down to a manageable level, making room for Lance's usual complaints.

"M'sorry," Lance mumbled all of a sudden, sniffing loudly. His hands started to shake and he placed the half-empty bowl on the nightstand.

"What for?" Shiro asked.

Lance curled deeper into his blanket cocoon. "Just... for everything. For getting lost in those caves like an idiot. For going out of commission _because_ I got lost in those caves like an idiot. Now we can't form Voltron, so if anything happens - we're screwed, and it's all my fault." His lower lip quivered dangerously, and he sniffed again.

"Hey, stop talking like this," Shiro was taken aback by this sudden burst of emotion. "No one is blaming you for anything, Lance. It was an accident. Honestly, it could have happened to any of us."

"Not to you," Lance muttered. "You _never_ get lost. Or sick."

Shiro raised an eyebrow.

Lance's already flushed cheeks became even redder. "Oh man," he said and rubbed his eyes with his fists. "I think the fever's getting to me... or maybe it's that freakish Altean medicine Coran has made me drink... sorry, Shiro, that was super rude..."

"It's fine," Shiro shook his head, trying to hide his amusement. "Stop apologizing for everything, kiddo. You're good." he patted Lance's knee (or at least he thought it was a knee; it was hard to tell under all those blankets) reassuringly. "And don't worry about Voltron. According to the castle's scans, right now we are in a pretty isolated part of the universe; it is very unlikely that we will be attacked any time soon. And if we are... well, we'll handle it, just like we always do. You just focus on resting and getting better, okay?"

Lance didn't look entirely convinced, but apparently he was too weak to argue, as he nodded and leaned heavily against the headboard. Shiro reached out his human arm and pressed his palm against Lance's forehead. It was still definitely warmer than healthy, though not on a dangerous level; Shiro made a mental note to make him take another dose of Altean cold medicine before bed.

Lance frowned under Shiro's touch. "You'll catch my cold if you keep poking me like this."

"Nah, I never get sick," Shiro said without thinking.

Lance blinked in confusion, and now it was Shiro's turn to blush. "Oh, I didn't mean it like that! Quiznack, that came out wrong. Um..." he sighed. "Fine. I admit it. I haven't had a cold since I was... ten, or something like that."

Lance's shoulders dropped. "I knew it."

"B-but that doesn't make me better than you in any way!" Shiro added quickly, but Lance only looked more depressed. Shiro mentally kicked himself. Lance has always had self-esteem issues, and being physically drained due to illness certainly didn't help his emotional state. Shiro searched his mind frantically for a way to lift Lance's spirits and stop him from feeling so useless and miserable.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

Shiro scooted closer to Lance and nudged his side gently. "You know, when I was at the Garrison, there was a day when the school had a visit from a group of some very important people. Senior faculty members, military commanders, head scientists... so, on this occasion, the school decided to do a demonstration of the new simulator they'd recently got. It was a really advanced model, and the man who donated the money for it was also among the visitors, so, you know, it was a pretty big deal."

Lance scrunched his nose. "Ah, yes, I think Hunk threw up in this specific simulator once. Iverson was _not_ happy about that."

Shiro chuckled. "Anyway, my team was chosen to run the demonstration. No pressure, right? However, there was only one tiny problem..." he cleared his throat. "On the day of the demonstration, I came down with the most awful food poisoning ever."

The last sentence seemed to shake Lance out of his dazed state as he gasped in horror, bolting upright. "Oh man, this _sucks_ ," he rasped. _"_ But wait, if it were from the food in the dining hall - and I won't be surprised if it were - wasn't everyone suppose to be sick?"

"Nope, I was the only one," Shiro said. "I'm not sure what caused it until today. Perhaps it _was_ the dining hall, but, you know, there was only one piece of food that was infected, and I happened to be lucky enough to get it - the point is, it was bad. Like... _really_ bad. I'll spare you the details - " Lance seemed thankful for that, as his red face took a dangerously green tint - "but, I honestly thought I was going to die."

Lance cringed. "So what happened? Did you tell them, 'hey guys, it's a great honor and all, but I'm gonna have to pass because I feel like someone's trying to blow up my intestines?'"

Shiro rubbed the back of his head. "Well... unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Apparently they've already told everyone that I was going to flight the simulation, and that I was the top pilot of my year and all..." he seemed embarrassed praising himself like this. "I mean - those people were expecting me! I couldn't just bail at the last second! So I said to myself, how long is this thing going to be already? Those simulations never last for more than ten minutes or so, especially when it's a part of a whole-day tour. I just needed to suck it up for ten minutes, shake some hands, and then I could go back to my dorms and sweat this bug off."

Lance covered his eyes with his hands as if he was afraid to hear the rest of the story. "Don't tell me. You ended up puking in the simulator. And I thought Hunk was the first one, judging by Iverson's reaction when it happened!"

Shiro shook his head. "Oh no, I didn't puke in the simulator. It was hard, but I managed to hold it together. I did something _way_ worse."

Lance peeked through his fingers. "What?"

"The demonstration was a great success. When my teammates and I stepped out of the simulator, everyone was applauding. The donor rushed forward to shake my hand, but... um... well, let's just say that I could only hold it together for so long. The adrenaline from piloting was already wearing off, and suddenly I just _knew_ what was coming, but I couldn't do anything to stop it..."

Lance's eyes widened. "No _,_ " he whispered.

Shiro nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. All over his shoes. And a bit of his pants, also."

" _No._ "

"Yes."

"You're lying."

"I wish I was lying. You can ask Matt when we find him."

Lance released a shaky laugh, which soon turned into a coughing fit. He lurched forward as he tried to fight it off, and Shiro caught his shoulder to steady him.

When it was finally over, Lance was completely drained of energy. He slumped against Shiro, breathing heavily. "How the hell did they not expel you after that?" he rasped.

Shiro adjusted his position in order to better take Lance's weight against his chest. "Well, of course everyone was furious at the beginning - the last thing I remember before I passed out was Commander Iverson's face, and it was almost as purple as Zarkon's - "

"You _passed out?_ "

"A-ha. My teammates had to carry me to the infirmary, and that's where they found out that I had a temperature of 104, so... it's all kind of a blur after that, but the bottom line is that the moment they found out how truly sick I was, they decided not to give me any punishment. The donor even left me a 'get well soon' note! One of the nurses brought it after I woke up. She said that he was actually very nice, that he seemed genuinely worried about me."

Lance's shoulders shook and when Shiro looked down, he could see that he was trying to stop himself from bursting out laughing again.

"That was such a weird story, man," Lance said eventually. Then he looked up in confusion. "Why did you tell me this?"

Shiro smiled. "To show you that even I get sick sometimes. And do some really embarrassing stuff because of that. And there's no need to be ashamed or feel guilty about it." He ruffled Lance's sweaty bangs. "So stop beating yourself up already."

Lance frowned. "So, the point of all this was to make me feel better."

"I guess you could say that."

"But dude, you gave me some serious leverage here. I mean, what if I told anyone?"

Shiro hummed in consideration. "Well, actually, I was kind of hoping that you won't remember it when you're feeling better. That you'll think it was all just a fever delusion or something."

"Pfft. Sorry, man, there's no way I'm going to forget _that._ Besides, I only forget bonding moments with Keith."

Shiro rolled his eyes in amusement. "Well, did it work?"

"What?"

"The whole 'making you feel better' part."

"Oh." Lance considered it for a moment. "Um... I think so. Yeah. No offence, but it's kinda nice to picture my fearless leader pulling a Hunk in front of the whole school board."

"I'm happy to provide."

"But..." Lance hesitated for a moment. "You know... it was scary." Shiro felt a sudden shiver traveling up Lance's spine. "I mean, in that hole. Like, scarier than that time I got trapped in the healing pod."

Shiro sighed and raked his fingers through Lane's hair once more. "I know, buddy. I'm sorry you had to go through something like this again. I wish we would have found you sooner."

"Me too. But hey, don't feel bad, it wasn't your fault."

Shiro smiled. "Well, I guess we both have some work to do about blaming ourselves for stuff, don't we?"

"Pfft. Totally. Jeez, we're more emo than Keith right now, it's so pathe-e-t-i-c..." the last word was broken into a long yawn, and Shiro suddenly felt Lance's entire body sink onto his chest.

Shiro blinked in surprise. "Lance?" He asked. "Buddy?"

"Mmm... 'm try'na sleep'..."

Shiro sighed. "Can you at least let me get up first?"

"Nngh. It's all part of the 'make Lance feel better' operation. Can't mess it up. "

Shiro leaned backwards and bumped his head against the wall in defeat. "Fine. But I'm going to wake you up soon to take your medicine."

"Ew."

"Sorry, kiddo. I know it's not as nice as Hunk's soup. But it'll make you feel better."

"Alrigh', alrigh'. Don't worry, I'll keep it all inside. I'm not like you, Arfie McBarfie."

At this point Shiro didn't know whether it was Lance or the fever talking, but he didn't really mind. He knew that he had to have a more serious talk with Lance about his insecurities once he was healthy again, but for now, it was enough to hear the boy's even, deep breaths and feel him relax under the blankets. And it was not long until Shiro himself drifted into a peaceful slumber.


End file.
